Patritotism

"It is not the function of our government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the government from falling into error"
– United States Supreme Court decision in American Communications Association v. Douds
"To stand in silence when they should be protesting makes cowards out of men."
- Abraham Lincoln
"Those who give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
- Ben Franklin
"The price of freedom is eternal vigilance."
- Thomas Jefferson
"Dissent is the highest form of patriotism."
-Thomas Jefferson
"It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance."
- Robert F . Kennedy
"It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds."
- Samuel Adams
"Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country. It is patriotic to support him insofar as he efficiently serves the country. It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact extent that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the country."
– Teddy Roosevelt
"To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."
– Teddy Roosevelt
“The citizen who sees his society’s democratic clothes being worn out and does not cry it out, is not a patriot, but a traitor.”
- Mark Twain
"Liberty has never come from government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of government. The history of liberty is a history of resistance. The history of liberty is a history of limitations of government power, not the increase of it."
- Woodrow Wilson
"All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent"
- Thomas Jefferson
"This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it."
- Abraham Lincoln, First Inaugural
"In this point of the case the question is distinctly presented whether the people of the United States are to govern through representatives chosen by their unbiased suffrages or whether the money and power of a great corporation are to be secretly exerted to influence their judgment and control their decisions."
- Andrew Jackson
"I am more than ever convinced of the dangers to which the free and unbiased exercise of political opinion -- the only sure foundation and safeguard of republican government -- would be exposed by any further increase of the already overgrown influence of corporate authorities."
- Martin Van Buren, Eighth President of the United States
"As we view the achievements of aggregated capital, we discover the existence of trusts, combinations, and monopolies, while the citizen is struggling far in the rear or is trampled to death beneath an iron heel. Corporations, which should be the carefully restrained creatures of the law and the servants of the people, are fast becoming the people's masters."
- Grover Cleveland, 22nd and 24th President of the United States
"I again recommend a law prohibiting all corporations from contributing to the campaign expenses of any party.… Let individuals contribute as they desire; but let us prohibit in effective fashion all corporations from making contributions for any political purpose, directly or indirectly." Teddy Roosevelt added, "The fortunes amassed through corporate organization are now so large, and vest such power in those that wield them, as to make it a matter of necessity to give to the sovereign -- that is, to the Government, which represents the people as a whole -- some effective power of supervision over their corporate use. In order to insure a healthy social and industrial life, every big corporation should be held responsible by, and be accountable to, some sovereign strong enough to control its conduct."
- Theodore Roosevelt
"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted."
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
"It was natural and perhaps human that the privileged princes of these new economic dynasties, thirsting for power, reached out for control over government itself. They created a new despotism and wrapped it in the robes of legal sanction. ...And as a result the average man once more confronts the problem that faced the Minute Man....
- Franklin Roosevelt
"A small group had concentrated into their own hands an almost complete control over other people's property, other people's money, other people's labor -- other people's lives. For too many of us life was no longer free; liberty no longer real; men could no longer follow the pursuit of happiness."
- Franklin Roosevelt
"These economic royalists complain that we seek to overthrow the institutions of America. What they really complain of is that we seek to take away their power. Our allegiance to American institutions requires the overthrow of this kind of power. In vain they seek to hide behind the flag and the Constitution. In their blindness they forget what the flag and the Constitution stand for."
- Franklin Roosevelt
"Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people. To destroy this invisible government, to befoul the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of the day."
- Theodore Roosevelt
"We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."
-Thomas Jefferson, American Declaration of Independence

Found on George Washingtons! blog.

Another article about the false Left/Right divide:

Don't Let Wisconsin Divide Us ... Conservatives and Liberals AGREE About the Important Things

 

by George Washington

→ Washington’s Blog
Don't let Wisconsin divide us.
Conservatives and liberals actually agree about the most important things.
In fact, most Americans - conservatives and liberals - are fed up with both of the mainstream republican and democratic parties, because it has become obvious that both parties serve Wall Street and the military-industrial complex at the expense of most Americans.
In reality, all Americans - conservatives and liberals:

• Want to break up the unholy alliance between big government and big banks

• Want to break up the giant banks (and see this)

• Agree that the Wall Street criminals who committed fraud should be thrown in jail

• Agree that the Federal Reserve should be audited

• Are against corporate socialism

• Are against rampant inequality

• Want to stand up to the ruling class

• And are against unnecessary imperial wars

The powers-that-be try to divide us and demonize the "other side" so that we won't realize how much we all agree on. See this, this, this, this, this, this, this and this.
Don't let them.

See the rest at:
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/dont-let-wisconsin-divide-us-conservatives-and-liberals-agree-about-important-things

Are you a Republican or a Democrat?
If you consider yourself either, or any other policical party, you have fallen into their trap!

We all want the same things out of life: enough to eat, a place to live, a family and some friends, a little entertainment now and then.  So why do we focus on our differences so much?  The media constantly bombards us with all the dividing issues, not the main body of similarities we all share.  What is the purpose,other than to sell newspapers and TV Ads?  Here is why, please read the following blog:


From: http://dont-tread-on.me/
Divide and Conquer is as a tactic of the Elite. The Elite use race, religion, education, income, sex, ethnicity or whatever to get us to see the differences in ourselves.  We are led to believe that our problems lie with our fellow man and not the architects of our world, the Elite. I have had the privilege to travel all over the world and have worked with managers of multi-billion dollar hedge funds to Romanian peasants.  For the most part, people want to do what they want to do, love who they want to love and make a better world for their children.  The Elite don’t want you to see commonality or humanity in your fellow man, that does not serve their interest.  In fact, I bet you have much more in common with the average Iraqi shop keeper, than any of the politicians that represent you.

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In order to fix the problems of the country, you first have to learn to think for yourself, and throw off the old paradigms. Get educated.
The Mogambo Patriot

Time to prepare, you never know!!

From:  http://www.shtfplan.com/

10 Things We Can Learn From Egypt About Preparing for Economic and Societal Collapse

Posted By Mac Slavo On January 31, 2011 @ 3:12 pm In Emergency Preparedness | 21 Comments

As riots spread across the world, having started first in Europe and now engulfing the Middle East, most people in the U.S. outright reject the possibility that the same could happen right here at home. But the fact of the matter is that we remain in economic crisis and there is a real possibility of a total collapse of the system ^[1] we have come to know.
If the system does happen to collapse, be it because of a hyperinflationary currency meltdown ^[2], political uprising or anything in between, here are ten things you can expect to happen, just as they are happening in the Middle East today:

Continued at:
http://www.shtfplan.com/emergency-preparedness/10-things-we-can-learn-from-egypt-about-preparing-for-economic-and-societal-collapse_01312011/print/

Corporate control of the media

Last post described how allowing corporations to have legal personhood leads to freedom of speech by corporations, which leads to freedom to donate money as they see fit, which leads to buying politicians.

Next I'll talk about Corporate ownership of the media.  It is a fact in this country that five corporations control almost all the newspaper, radio, and tv outlets in the country.  See these websites to read about it:

http://www.corporations.org/media/  
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Corporate_Media/CorpMedia_ThreatDemocracy.html
http://www.freedomofthepress.net/corporatecontrolofthemedia.htm

With this much control, the public can be told anything the big corporations want us to hear.  Politician free face time (very important for reelection) on the news, misleading economy statistics, distorted overseas news, suppressed demonstrations, and bad corporate behavior news can all be fed to us as they wish.  With the interlocking corporate board of directors and stock ownership, the news from virtually all corporations can be controlled as they desire. 
We were lied to about the crash of 2008, it was actually perfectly predictable, and many did so online in 2005-2008, in blogs just like this one.  The $700 billion the government (actually the taxpayers) gave to hundreds of corporations, which was said to be necessary to save the economy was actually stolen.  No news outlet had any valid analysis or investigation into this event.  Most people in the US were against the bailout, but the politicians didn't listen.  They didn't have to, they had already been paid off, and the news wouldn't tell the truth about it.
Get informed, people, and unite!
The Mogambo Patriot

In order for you to help begin the process to make the United States a better place, you must become educated in the problems we need to face, and where they come from.  What are the problems?  Here is a start of the list:
Corporate Power
1) Corporate control of the politicians through campaign contributions
2) Corporate control of the media to keep the people mis-informed
Bank Power
1) Central bank control of the economy through the money system
2) Fractional Reserve Banking-- money generated from nothing, and then charging interest for something created from nothing.
3) The unconstitutional creation and continuing existance of the Federal Reserve, which is neither Federal or a Reserve.
4) The removal of the United States illegally from the Gold/Silver standard allowing unlimited creation of fiat money and theft from the people by inflation
Unconstitutional Laws
1) Money system in control by the banks instead of the people as specified in the constitution
2) Reduction of the rights guaranteed by the Bill of Rights, such as the PATRIOT act, and the intrusive TSA and Department of Homeland Security

Ecology
1) The intrusive EPA and its gestapo like enforcement techniques that eliminate due process
2) All the while the environment continues to degrade because the big polluters have the money to buy influence.
3) Sustainability: how are we going to continue to sustain our quality of life while natural resources continue to deplete at the same time that population continues to expand.
4) Energy is becoming expensive and harder to find, yet the government efforts to support renewable energy are meager, random, and often counterproductive

Quality of Life and Lack of Control
1) Due to the above problems, people feel powerless to control their lives, and either drop out of the process (voting is at an all time low) or react with random acts of violence against people and organizations (mass shootings, assinations)
2) Exploding Medical Costs
3) Exploding Educational Costs
4) Exploding Debt load by people and governments making for higher taxes and inability to keep up with cost of living


The first step to better the United States is to reclaim control of the country from the corporations.  The corporations today have more power than the people.  This power started with one court case in 1886: Santa Clara County v. Southen Pacific Railroad.  You can read about the case and it's importance at:

http://www.reclaimdemocracy.org/pdf/primers/hidden_corporate_history.pdf
and:
http://www.reclaimdemocracy.org/personhood/edwards_morgan_corporate.html

As of today, corporations have all the rights and privilages of a real person, including full Bill of Rights protection. The most abused right is the right of free speech.  They translate free speech into the right to bribe politicians to make laws more favorable to them.  That is why things keep getting worse.  Just a few weeks ago the Supreme Court ruled that Corporations can make campaign contributions of unlimited value, and with no public disclosure.  Politicians are being bought and paid for!
Corporations also have incredible power because they have tremendously more resources available to them than a real person does.  A person trying to sue a corporation for a mis-deed has almost no chance against the corporate lawyers.  It's almost a joke for a person to sue a corporation, no one in their right mind would consider it.
Because their lifetime is unlimited, their power can continuously increase.  The only people they are beholding to is their stock holders, and stock holders are basically gamblers who could care less about the public good.
Of three groups effected by corporations, (customers, employees, and stockholders), the stockholders have the most influence, followed by slight influence by employees, and little by customers (Let the buyer Beware).
This is the reverse of what would be good for society in general.  Customers should be first (safety, value), with stockholders (gambelers) last, if good for society is the criteria.

So that is your assignment for today.  Get educated. Google is your best friend.
Tomorrow, the media.
Thanks for Reading,
The Mogambo Patriot

Plan for the Betterment of the United States

The United States as we know it is in trouble.  Conversations around the dinner table, at the pub, college campuses and online seem to inevitably turn to this very topic.  What is wrong, and how to fix it are the purpose of this blog.
The Mogambo Patriot wants you to get involved! Lets form  a new committee to fix this.  Lets make a plan, generated by the people, to force the change that is needed.  We tried to vote for change two years ago and look how that turned out.  The people need to get directly involved to bypass elected officials that aren't following our directions.
If you want to get involved on  this committee, since it is my blog (so far) here are my rules:
1) Violence as a part of the solution is forbidden.  We will fix this without violence or we will fail
2) We will obey all laws, but work as hard as possible to change the ones that need to change
3) The Constitution is our founding document.  Some tweaks will be needed.
4) A new economic system needs to be put on the table.  Capitalism is too much based on greed, and freedom loving Americans won't subject themselves to socialism. See #3 above!
If we can get enough people on board, generating a plan generated by contributions from everybody, so when  it is time to vote for it, passage will be assured.

If this blog takes off, it will need a good website and funding.  Any volunteers for webmaster? Any funding suggestions?