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Title: Why Did Senator John Kerry Stand Idly By?
Source:
Counterpunch
URL Source: http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts09192007.html
Published: Sep 20, 2007
Author: Paul Craig Roberts
Post Date: 2007-09-20 07:29:16 by Zoroaster
Ping List: *Paul Craig Roberts* Subscribe to *Paul Craig Roberts*
Keywords: None
Views: 211
Comments: 12
September 19, 2007 Why Did Senator John Kerry Stand Idly By? By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS Naïve Americans who think they live in a free society should watch the video filmed by students at a John Kerry speech September 17, Constitution Day, at the University of Florida in Gainesville. At the conclusion of Kerry’s speech, Andrew Meyer, a 21-year old journalism student was selected by Senator Kerry to ask a question. Meyer held up a copy of BBC investigative reporter Greg Palast’s book, Armed Madhouse, and asked if Kerry was aware that Palast’s investigations determined that Kerry had actually won the election. Why, Meyer asked, had Kerry conceded the election so quickly when there were so many obvious examples of vote fraud? Why, Meyer, went on to ask, was Kerry refusing to consider Bush’s impeachment when Bush was about to initiate another act of military aggression, this time against Iran? At this point the public’s protectors—the police—decided that Meyer had said too much. They grabbed Meyer and began dragging him off. Meyer said repeatedly, “I have done nothing wrong,” which under our laws he had not. He threatened no one and assaulted no one. But the police decided that Meyer, an American citizen, had no right to free speech and no constitutional protection. They threw him to the floor and tasered him right in front of Senator Kerry and the large student audience, who captured on video the unquestionable act of police brutality. Meyer was carted off and jailed on a phony charge of “disrupting a public event.” The question we should all ask is why did a United States Senator just stand there while Gestapo goons violated the constitutional rights of a student participating in a public event, brutalized him in full view of everyone, and then took him off to jail on phony charges? Kerry’s meekness not only in the face of electoral fraud, not only in the face of Bush’s wars that are crimes under the Nuremberg standard, but also in the face of police goons trampling the constitutional rights of American citizens makes it completely clear that he was not fit to be president, and he is not fit to be a US senator. Usually when police violate constitutional rights and commit acts of police brutality they do it when they believe no one is watching, not in front of a large audience. Clearly, the police have become more audacious in their abuse of rights and citizens. What explains the new fearlessness of police to violate rights and brutalize citizens without cause? The answer is that police, most of whom have authoritarian personalities, have seen that constitutional rights are no longer protected. President Bush does not protect our constitutional rights. Neither does Vice President Cheney, nor the Attorney General, nor the US Congress. Just as Kerry allowed Meyer’s rights to be tasered out of him, Congress has enabled Bush to strip people, including American citizens, of constitutional protection and incarcerate them without presenting evidence. How long before Kerry himself or some other senator will be dragged from his podium and tasered? The Bush Republicans with complicit Democrats have essentially brought government accountability to an end in the US. The US government has 80,000 people, including ordinary American citizens, on its “no-fly list.” No one knows why they are on the list, and no one on the list can find out how to get off it. An unaccountable act by the Bush administration put them there. Airport Security harasses and abuses people who do not fit any known definition of terrorist. Nalini Ghuman, a British-born citizen and music professor at Mills College in California was met on her return from a trip to England by armed guards at the airplane door and escorted away. A Gestapo goon squad tore up her US visa, defaced her British passport, body searched her, and told her she could leave immediately for England or be sent to a detention center. Professor Ghuman, an Oxford University graduate with a Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley, says she feels like the character in Kafka’s book, The Trial. “I don’t know why it’s happened, what I’m accused of. There’s no opportunity to defend myself. One is just completely powerless.” Over one year later there is still no answer. The Bush Republicans and their Democratic toadies have, in the name of “security,” made all of us powerless. While Senator John Kerry and his Democratic colleagues stand silently, the Bush administration has stolen our country from us and turned us into subjects. *The video of Andrew’s Mayer’s arrest may be found at http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/index.php?filmID=601 Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page and Contributing Editor of National Review. He is coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentions.He can be reached at: PaulCraigRoberts@yahoo.com
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#1. To: Zoroaster (#0)
Not only Congress, but us. When they offed Wellstone, it was a clear message that if they are opposed, you WILL die.
"First they ignore you. Then they ridicule you. Then they fight you. Then you win." --Mahatma Gandhi
"It does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brush fires of freedom in the minds of men." -- Samuel Adams (1722-1803)‡
of the 99 others, how many would you bet would have handled this incident in the same way kerry did?
Say what?
"It does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brush fires of freedom in the minds of men." -- Samuel Adams (1722-1803)‡
"It does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brush fires of freedom in the minds of men." -- Samuel Adams (1722-1803)‡
I thought it was hilarious and nearly fell out of my chair.
"It does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brush fires of freedom in the minds of men." -- Samuel Adams (1722-1803)‡
Well that is what happens when we allow the governing elite to pick the two people we are to vote for out of 300 million people.
Because this particular Sentaor is a spineless fucking jellyfish.
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition Kerry's main task at the beginning of his Senate career was to debunk conspiracy theories, much like the Turtle poster does on this forum. It seemed every time a conspiracy story hit the news in the early 1990s, Kerry would appear on the Electric Jew to debunk it. When the Establishment called upon him to provide a "straw man" to run against Genghis W. Bush in the '04 presidential election, Kerry answered the call, a true hero of the New World Order. Will Kerry emerge again as the hero on the world stage?
Life is a tragedy to those who feel, and a comedy to those who think.
Hello. I need a favor. In the future could you please refer to the Turtle poster as the Abe Zapruder got lucky and must be debunked poster? Thanks.
Congress has enabled Bush to strip people, including American citizens, of constitutional protection and incarcerate them without presenting evidence.
#2. To: Zoroaster (#0)
#3. To: Zoroaster (#0)
Kerry’s meekness not only in the face of electoral fraud, not only in the face of Bush’s wars that are crimes under the Nuremberg standard, but also in the face of police goons trampling the constitutional rights of American citizens makes it completely clear that he was not fit to be president, and he is not fit to be a US senator.
#4. To: ghostdogtxn (#2)
Because he's a dawdling pussy.
#5. To: christine (#3)
#6. To: Cynicom (#4)
#7. To: ghostdogtxn (#6)
I thought I was fairly clear here.
#8. To: Cynicom (#7)
#9. To: ghostdogtxn (#8)
Nothing funny about it when you realize that 1)this dawdling pussy nearly became our president, and 2) he would have been a much better one than the non- dawdling sociopath in that office now.
#10. To: Zoroaster (#0)
The question we should all ask is why did a United States Senator just stand there while Gestapo goons violated the constitutional rights of a student participating in a public event, brutalized him in full view of everyone, and then took him off to jail on phony charges?
"There is no 'legitimate' Corporation by virtue of it's very legal definition and purpose."
-- IndieTx
#11. To: IndieTX (#10)
Because this particular Sentaor is a spineless fucking jellyfish.
#12. To: Zoroaster (#11)
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